Floor and Ceil in BST in DSA Go - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is the floor of a value in a Binary Search Tree (BST)?

The floor of a value in a BST is the greatest value in the BST that is less than or equal to the given value.

beginner

What is the ceil of a value in a Binary Search Tree (BST)?

The ceil of a value in a BST is the smallest value in the BST that is greater than or equal to the given value.

intermediate

How does the BST property help in finding floor and ceil efficiently?

Because BST nodes are ordered, we can decide to go left or right at each node to find floor or ceil without checking all nodes, making the search faster.

beginner

In Go, what is the base case when recursively searching for floor or ceil in a BST?

The base case is when the current node is nil, meaning we reached a leaf without finding a better candidate.

beginner

If the target value equals a node's value in BST, what is the floor and ceil?

Both floor and ceil are the node's value itself because it exactly matches the target.

What does the floor of a value in a BST represent?

A The largest value less than or equal to the target

B The smallest value greater than or equal to the target

C The root value of the BST

D The smallest value in the BST

Floor is the greatest value in the BST that is less than or equal to the target.

If the target value is smaller than all nodes in the BST, what is the floor?

A The smallest node value

B The root node value

C The largest node value

D No floor exists (nil)

If target is smaller than all nodes, no floor exists because no node is less than or equal to target.

Which direction do you move in BST when searching for floor if current node value is greater than target?

A Go right

B Stop search

C Go left

D Return current node

If current node value is greater than target, floor must be in left subtree.

What is the ceil of a value in a BST?

A Smallest value greater than or equal to target

B Largest value less than or equal to target

C Root node value

D Largest value in BST

Ceil is the smallest value in BST greater than or equal to the target.

When target equals a node's value, what should floor and ceil functions return?

A Return nil for both

B Return the node's value for both

C Return left child value

D Return right child value

Exact match means floor and ceil are the node's value.

Explain how to find the floor of a given value in a BST step-by-step.

Think about how BST ordering helps decide direction.

Describe the difference between floor and ceil in a BST and how their searches differ.

Focus on comparison direction and candidate updates.